Bare Grills — Restaurant in Bristol

Working away for my company I have been to numerous smokehouse style restaurants and can honestly say Bare Grills was the clear winner so far.

I visited with my family on a personal meal (not funded by my employer) and it was a group choice to visit this restaurant. I had been to the same location some years ago (probably 2015) when it used to be owned by Grillstock.

The location is Clifton Triangle and luckily the West End multistorey car park had just re-opened after a lengthy closure (£3 for 2 hours).

We arrived at 5pm and there was already 3 or 4 tables eating there food when we arrived, the music was great if you love southern rock and that style which I do.

We were asked for our drink order first, and then ordered our food.

The order was

1 x Double Bacon Burger 1 x Filthy Pig Burger 1 x Piggyback Burger 2 x Dirty Fries with crispy bacon 1 x Dirty Fries with pulled pork

The food arrived promptly and looked amazing (see images), the fries were so nice with the sauce and topping (bacon or pulled pork) given them an extra level of delicousness!

The burgers were amazing, I had the Piggy Back which is bacon and 4 burger patties! It was like a skyscraper! It was juicy, well cooked (not over cooked before you jump to any conclusion!).

It was too big to eat by hand, so i decided to split it into 2 halves, then eat with a knife and fork. My family all enjoyed there meal just as much with 6 plates going back completely clean (the fries are seperately ordered to the burgers so on a different plate).

As I said in my opinion this is the finest tasting burger + fries in a smokehouse restaurant that I have been too, give it a try you will not be dissapointed! Their menu is not just limited to burgers, they have hot dogs, wings and ribs etc too.

I will be returning and my family are all in agreement that they loved it too and...

Was in two minds about heading here after reading a couple of the poor reviews recently, I have eaten here before and it was not too bad. So took my family there for a cheeky Friday burger.

First off, service was great. Greeted with a smile and our reservation was all good. Not too busy but it was an early dinner time reservation. Service was awesome from start to finish and no complaints there at all.

I had the burger, which was tasty, felt fresh and decent size with two patties. Sauce was good and the taste was ok. Not mind blowing but a decent burger. Only gripe would be it was quite pink in the patties and I prefer mine a just a little more cooked but that's my fault for not saying to the waitress. My wife's pulled pork was pretty poor to be honest. Looked like it had been defrosted and slopped on the plate, and just wasn't the same quality as when we had eaten there previously. Son had a burger and loved it, we also got burnt ends which were below average. Really chewy and did not feel fresh at all. Chips needed to be cooked a little longer but seasoning was great and taste was very good.

We also ended up getting an extra order of burnt ends included due to a mistake at ordering. Very much appreciated guys and thank you for this.

I will say one thing, you need to maybe clean your toilet room more often. That was a a bit of a horror show. I would very much advise against going in there if I was you.

Overall it was quite pricey for what it was, if it has been the standard we'd previously had then would have been happy to pay it. But I am afraid we will not be heading back there now as the food just didn't impress us. I hope they put some time and effort into bringing this place back to what it was as it's a great idea, restaurant and location.

Service was top class though, just some of the food let it down...

Haven’t been here for a few years, wanted to give it a go with some mates.

We ordered platter for 2, which had a bit of everything on it, well it was pretty dry and flavourless all round.

Platter for 2 comes with 2 burgers, whole rack of bbq ribs, burnt ends, wings and pulled pork. Also a heap of fries which we upgraded to pastrami and jalapeño fries, corn on the cob and onion rings.

I’ll talk on the meat side of things first - started with the wings and they were dry, crispy skin but no sauce they lacked any flavour. I moved onto the bbq ribs, they fell of the bone and soft, not the moist as could be but they were ok, lacked in sauce again tho. I tried the burger next and this probably most flavourful / best thing on the platter tbh, patty was perfect, toppings had the right amount and nice bun, plenty of flavour also. The burnt ends were super dry and chewy without much seasoning at all, hard to eat tbh. And that leaves the pulled pork which was actually really nice, good flavours and juice running through it could ate that all day!

The sides well, the pastrami loaded fries were great, good texture and flavour plenty of cheese and pastrami, the jalapeño loaded fries again the same, no complaints from those two dishes. Were as the corn tasted like it was boiled in old bath water, inedible! And onion rings were dripping in old oil and tasted like they been recooked 4 times.

In general the food was pretty bland and really not that authentic bbq low and slow meat you want from this kind of place!

It lacked those smokey, deep flavours and none of the sauces cut through with any acidity or flavour.

Probably won’t return here for a while tbh.

Overall score 5/10, needs a lot more work and care. It feels like a bbq joint without any of the food given that bbq...